Editorial: Money, money, money: not so funny in the research world

Abstract

Performance-based research has become the holy grail of academic life, where research output directly influences the distribution of funding to universities. This in turn, shapes research priorities and can see nursing research underresourced and marginalised. In recent years, there have been substantial changes in the university research environment, and 'performance-based research funding systems [PRFSs]' are among the 'novelties introduced' (Hicks 2012, p. 251). These PRFSs are complex, dynamic systems, which supposedly balance peer review and metrics amongst other factors. The importance of PRFSs is based on the distribution of universities' research funding - an illusion; as in reality, it is the competition for prestige that creates powerful incentives within universities (Hicks 2012). With the right circumstances, such distribution will support control by a group of privileged professionals, and may compromise equally important values like equity, social inclusion, access and diversity (Hicks 2012).